


M/M Fans: Sexuality and Gender

by centreoftheselights



Series: AO3 Census 2013 [7]
Category: No Fandom
Genre: AO3 Statistics, Archived From Tumblr, Archived from centrumumina Tumblr, Fandom Statistics, Gender in Fandom, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, Research, Sexuality in Fandom, Slash Fandom, statistics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-07
Updated: 2013-10-07
Packaged: 2019-09-19 14:50:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17003727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/centreoftheselights/pseuds/centreoftheselights
Summary: An exploratory look at gender and sexuality among M/M fans who responded to the AO3 census.





	M/M Fans: Sexuality and Gender

There’s been a lot of interest in the [last post](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17003655) on this topic, so here are some more exploratory results.

**Highlights**

Heterosexual male respondents were hugely less likely to read or write slash than any other group, although this may be down to small sample size for that demographic.

The largest group for both readers and creators of M/M was bi/pansexual women, followed by heterosexual women and women on the asexual spectrum.

In most cases, non-binary people were more likely than those who identified as men or women to be fans of M/M.

Methodology and data below the cut.

**Definitions**

I considered four categories for “primary sexuality” - hetero-, homo-, bi- or pan- and asexual. To be classed in any of these categories, the respondent could not have selected a checkbox for any other category listed or the Other checkbox. Grey-asexual and Demisexual results were not taken into consideration, and Queer was not considered for any category except Heterosexuality, where it was disallowed.

I also looked at the asexual spectrum, which was defined as anyone who had checked Asexual, Grey-asexual and/or Demisexual among their answers.

A respondent was classed as female if they selected Female, optionally Transgender and/or Trans*, and no other boxes on the gender question. Male was defined similarly. Those who did not meet either of these definitions are labelled non-binary as an umbrella term (although they may not necessarily identify as such).

The total number of respondents was 10005; the number of M/M readers surveyed was 8978 and the number of M/M creators was 4013.

**Data**

_Primarily Heterosexual_

There were 3245 primarily heterosexual respondents, of whom 3176 were female, 29 were male, and 40 were non-binary.

There were 2799 primarily heterosexual M/M readers, of whom 2751 were female, 10 were male, and 38 were non-binary.

There were 1036 primarily heterosexual M/M creators, of whom 1018 were female, 3 were male and 15 were non-binary.

_Primarily Homosexual_

There were 517 primarily homosexual respondents, of whom 340 were female, 120 were male, and 57 were non-binary.

There were 424 primarily homosexual M/M readers, of whom 258 were female, 117 were male, and 49 were non-binary.

There were 202 primarily homosexual M/M creators, of whom 122 were female, 53 were male, and 27 were non-binary.

_Primarily Bi/Pansexual_

There were 3667 primarily bi/pansexual respondents, of whom 3021 were female, 93 were male, and 553 were non-binary.

There were 3432 primarily bi/pansexual M/M readers, of whom 2826 were female, 85 were male, and 521 were non-binary.

There were 1712 primarily bi/pansexual M/M creators, of whom 1363 were female, 43 were male, and 306 were non-binary.

_Primarily Asexual_

There were 714 primarily asexual respondents, of whom 523 were female, 8 were male, and 183 were non-binary.

There were 639 primarily asexual M/M readers, of whom 463 were female, 6 were male, and 170 were non-binary.

There were 287 primarily asexual M/M creators, of whom 203 were female, 4 were male, and 80 were non-binary.

_Asexual Spectrum_

There were 2175 asexual spectrum respondents, of whom 1652 were female, 39 were male, and 484 were non-binary.

There were 1985 asexual spectrum M/M readers, of whom 1500 were female, 37 were male, and 448 were non-binary.

There were 887 asexual spectrum M/M creators, of whom 642 were female, 21 were male, and 224 were non-binary.

_Percentage of total M/M readers_

  * Heterosexual: 31.2% 
    * Female: 30.6%
    * Male: 0.1%
    * Non-binary: 0.4%
  * Homosexual: 4.7% 
    * Female: 2.9%
    * Male: 1.3%
    * Non-binary: 0.5%
  * Bi/pansexual: 38.2% 
    * Female: 31.5%
    * Male: 0.9%
    * Non-binary: 5.8%
  * Asexual: 7.1% 
    * Female: 5.2%
    * Male: 0.1%
    * Non-binary: 1.9%
  * Asexual spectrum: 22.1% 
    * Female: 16.7%
    * Male: 0.4%
    * Non-binary: 5.0%



_Percentage of total M/M creators_

  * Heterosexual: 25.8% 
    * Female: 25.4%
    * Male: 0.1%
    * Non-binary: 0.4%
  * Homosexual: 5.0% 
    * Female: 3.0%
    * Male: 1.3%
    * Non-binary: 0.7%
  * Bi/pansexual: 42.7% 
    * Female: 34.0%
    * Male: 1.1%
    * Non-binary: 7.6%
  * Asexual: 7.2% 
    * Female: 5.1%
    * Male: 0.1%
    * Non-binary: 2.0%
  * Asexual spectrum: 22.1% 
    * Female: 16.0%
    * Male: 0.5%
    * Non-binary: 5.6%



_Probability of being an M/M reader_

For these probabilities, italics mark demographic groups with fewer than 100 respondents in total, which is likely to be too small to be accurate.

The average probability for the whole sample is 89.7%.

  * Heterosexual: 86.3% 
    * Female: 86.6%
    * _Male: 34.5%_
    * _Non-binary: 95.0%_
  * Homosexual: 82.0% 
    * Female: 75.9%
    * Male: 97.5%
    * _Non-binary: 86.0%_
  * Bi/pansexual: 93.6% 
    * Female: 93.5%
    * _Male: 91.4%_
    * Non-binary: 94.2%
  * Asexual: 89.5% 
    * Female: 88.5%
    * _Male: 75.0%_
    * Non-binary: 92.9%
  * Asexual spectrum: 91.3% 
    * Female: 90.8%
    * _Male: 94.9%_
    * Non-binary: 92.6%



_Probability of being an M/M creator_

For these probabilities, italics mark demographic groups with fewer than 100 respondents in total, which is likely to be too small to be accurate.

The average probability for the whole sample is 40.1%.

  * Heterosexual: 31.9% 
    * Female: 32.1%
    * _Male: 10.3%_
    * _Non-binary: 37.5%_
  * Homosexual: 39.1% 
    * Female: 35.9%
    * Male: 44.2%
    * _Non-binary: 47.4%_
  * Bi/pansexual: 46.7% 
    * Female: 45.1%
    * _Male: 46.2%_
    * Non-binary: 55.3%
  * Asexual: 40.2% 
    * Female: 38.8%
    * _Male: 50.0%_
    * Non-binary: 43.7%
  * Asexual spectrum: 40.8% 
    * Female: 38.9%
    * _Male: 53.8%_
    * Non-binary: 46.3%




End file.
